Cabarrus Cheap Seats

The staff of the City of Concord proposed that the property tax rate be increased by $0.014 on the $100 valuation. For me, I’ll be sending an extra $1.66 to the city’s coffers every month. So, please excuse my lack of excitement over the issue.

I did take the time to look over the budget. The City of Concord has managed to operate a budget where less than 10% of the tax revenues goes towards debt services; as opposed to the County’s 15%. From what I can see, it doesn’t look like the City is looking to get into any big-time debt. They’ve managed to keep one of the lowest tax rates in the state (even after this increase) without any budgeting trickery or raiding fund balances (they are staying between 30% and 35%)

Anyhow, some folks did get excited about it. Here’s a letter to the editor from Kent Ashton:

Whoa! This wasn’t the way it was supposed to be. “Growth pays for itself,” our (Concord) councilmen told us. “The airport will be profitable in a year or so,” they promised in 1995. But now, faced with a shortage of tax revenue, the council offers the predictable solution: Raise rates. 

The city should stop the direct and indirect tax incentives to businesses. It should stop promoting and funding growth at taxpayer expense.

When the city grants a direct tax incentive to a new business, the rest of us pay for the roads, sewer and infrastructure that supports the new business and its projected employees.

More insidious are the indirect incentives that transfer our wealth to others seen as more deserving. The city manager’s new budget reveals that the city will transfer another $1,008,000 of our property taxes to the airport next year to cover expenses such as supporting the $500,000 hangar the city built for Rick Hendrick last year. Now, councilman (Hector) Henry observes that there ought to be a tax on users of the airport, admitting, in effect, that the incentives aren’t paying for themselves.

The current councilmen have had 15 years to prove their theory. If promoting growth, handing out tax rebates and building big airports worked, the council would be flush with property taxes from the flood of growth we’ve experienced. That they are now raising taxes proves they were wrong.

What’s funny is that if you look at the budget, you’ll see that the airport’s operating expenses were less than revenues for this fiscal year. The FY2007 budget costs are actually less than this year’s budgeted costs.

“Always Look On The Bright Side of Life”

I know that the airport and some other City projects gets some people all in a huff. However, the braying over small moves in property tax levies reminds me of a discussion in Monty Python’s 1979 masterpiece Life of Brian. For those of you who remember - enjoy. For those of you who don’t…it’s getting too late for me to explain.

Reg: They’ve bled us white. They’ve taken everything we had, and not just from us, from our fathers, and from our fathers’ fathers.
Loretta: And from our fathers’ fathers’ fathers.
Reg: Yeah.
Loretta: And from our fathers’ fathers’ fathers’ fathers.
Reg: Yeah. All right, Stan. Don’t labour the point. And what have they ever given us in return?!
Xerxes: The aqueduct?
Reg: What?
Xerxes: The aqueduct.
Reg: Oh. Yeah, yeah. They did give us that. Uh, that’s true. Yeah.
Commando 3: And the sanitation.
Loretta: Oh, yeah, the sanitation, Reg. Remember what the city used to be like?
Reg: Yeah. All right. I’ll grant you the aqueduct and the sanitation are two things that the Romans have done.
Matthias: And the roads.
Reg: Well, yeah. Obviously the roads. I mean, the roads go without saying, don’t they? But apart from the sanitation, the aqueduct, and the roads–
Commando: Irrigation.
Xerxes: Medicine.
Commandos: Huh? Heh? Huh…
Commando 2: Education.
Commandos: Ohh…
Reg: Yeah, yeah. All right. Fair enough.
Commando 1: And the wine.
Commandos: Oh, yes. Yeah…
Francis: Yeah. Yeah, that’s something we’d really miss, Reg, if the Romans left. Huh.
Commando: Public baths.
Loretta: And it’s safe to walk in the streets at night now, Reg.
Francis: Yeah, they certainly know how to keep order. Let’s face it. They’re the only ones who could in a place like this.
Commandos: Hehh, heh. Heh heh heh heh heh heh heh.
Reg: But apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh-water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?
Xerxes: Brought peace?
Reg: Oh, peace? Shut up!